Blogger Board Game Club – Ticket to Ride, My First Journey

As you may know, I love board games and have often posted about them previously. Even before meeting my current partner Chris, I used to host board game nights with my friends and as a child we were always bought board games as Christmas presents. Since meeting Chris (and watching a YouTube show called Tabletop) I have really found a love for playing games and have quite a large collection. That said, the board games we play aren’t really your typical Monopoly, Game of Life, Cluedo etc (though we do have those too). When I was asked if I would like to joing “Blogger Board Game Club“, I jumped at the chance and the first game I was sent was Ticket to Ride – My First Journey.

Ticket to Ride (the original game) is one of my most favourite board games of all time. I have played both the USA edition and the European version and we currently own a copy of the USA one. Though we had played Ticket to Ride with my eldest daughter, we had always felt it was a little too complicated for my youngest daughter. So when this arrived as our first game, I was actually thrilled that she would now be able to play it too.

The concept of the game is really simple. You have a board with cities, and routes connecting them. Each route has between 1-3 spaces. Players draw 2 route cards at random and keep them hidden from the other players.

Players have plastic trains, each with their own player colour, which they will lay down on the board to claim the route. In order to claim the route, you need coloured train cards – the same amount as the route requires. For example Paris to Madrid requires either 3 blue train cards or 3 red train cards.

You cash in the cards, place your trains and claim the route from city to city. The aim being, to collect the full route listed on your card. Once you have claimed the full route, whatever that is, you lay the card down where players can see and then pick up another random route card.

There are bonus cards available for Coast to Coast routes and these count towards your final route card count. The winner of the game, is the person who gets 6 route cards (with or without a bonus card) first. That winner then receives the Golden Ticket!

When we previously played the original Ticket to Ride versions, my partner always used to come last but when we played My First Journey, he won all three time (clearly he’s a child at heart). Both my daughters loved the game and although some might consider it a dumbed down version for children, the excitement and competitiveness is still there, whereby it’s not always going to be an adult that wins, just because its a child version. Geographically it could be classed as an educational game too. The game uses some major cities for connecting routes and its always good for kids to get a feel of where in the world these cities are.

Ticket to Ride – My First Journey was a really enjoyable game to play. It helped having played the original first, to explain the rules, but the rules are also so simple that it isn’t at all hard to grasp how to play. We played three times in one evening when we first played and have played several times since. The box hasn’t even been put away in the board game cupboard all summer holidays, just because the girls always ask if we can play it. I highly recommend all versions of Ticket to Ride, to adults and children alike.